unit 10

The task was to crate a 1 minute short drama however without any verbal dialog. The story had to have a beginning, middle and end and exactly a minute long. It must of told a story but could be any genre, my group chose to do a romance genre’d video.

We used the single camera technique to record our video with multiple different shots and angles. We used the technique of far shots, close ups, over shoulder shots and focused shots. We recorded the whole script multiple times but with the camera at different angles to make it flow as neatly as possible.

Our group worked well. When in production we worked as a unit as well as gave out ideas and gave our opinions on different things to see how we could of improved. The camera work was done by Zoe and directed by Emily. The two worked closely and constantly tried to do the best of the scenario they were given. The actors were myself, Andrew, and Vonnie who was again directed well by Emily as well as sharing idea’s between the both actors.

The strengths of the group project was that we worked well together as a team. No one was singled out or left out, everyone had a role to play and we did these roles well. The fact we worked so well as a group helped lead to new ideas and different opinions to help us get the best possible result for our final video. Another strength was that myself, Emily and Zoe all individually edited our videos and we all made it unique into a story of our own image and gave off a different feeling for each one. A weakness of the project was the fact that we had a limited amount of time to complete and film this which lead to things being a little bit rushed however we did not let that effect us.

Overall, the project went really well for what we were set to do. We completed the task before any deadlines and encountered zero issues that conflicted with our project.

Linear Narrative: A story that is told from the start to the end in chronological order. There are no side stories or diversions that break up the main timeline. An example is the movie “The Blues Brothers”

Non-Linear Narrative: Where the story can have any order it wants. This can include things such as spin offs, side stories, flashbacks and special episodes for a specific character. A good example of this are the “Star Wars” movies.

Flashbacks: Flashbacks are used within a story to show a characters back story or to remind the watcher of something that happened long ago within the series that is relevant to the current plot. The transitions into these flashbacks can be anything from a bright light to a dream sequence. Another common transition is when the camera zooms into the characters face and/or eyes. An example of this would be the television series “My Name is Earl” where the whole plot is followed by past events.

Single Strand Narrative Structure: This narrative is when the movie and/or television series is based on one story line. This can however be based on one or more main characters as long as it focuses on the same story line. This is the most common structure of filming. An example of a movie that does this is Harry Potter where the story follows him and his friends.

Multi Strand Narrative Structure: This is the narrative that has several story lines going on at the same time with several different characters. This is more commonly seen in soap operas such as Eastenders or television series that have a lot of characters such as Game of Thrones.

Close Endings: A closed narrative is when it reaches its conclusion with no possible sequel within that story line. Once the main story line is completed then that is the story over. The only way the story can continue is if it is a spin off with a different character that was introduced within the main story of the original series. A good example of this is “Breaking Bad” where the main character died closing the series, however had a spin off show called “Better Call Saul” that displayed events before the main story of Breaking Bad.

Open Narrative Structure: This is where a show has no start, middle or end; it is just a continuous story that often ends an episode with a cliffhanger to keep the watcher interested and curious. This is commonly found in soap operas such as HollyOaks.

Series Formats:

Breaking Bad is a television series that run from 2008 – 2013 lasting 5 seasons. The story follows Walter White, a chemistry teacher, who is working two jobs to maintain for his wife and disabled son. It is soon discovered that Walter has lung cancer and his medical treatment will put his family in serious debt when he inevitably dies. As Walter doesn’t want that, he bumps into his former student Jesse Pinkman who is a drug dealer. He decides to team up with Jesse and secretly cook meth to pay for his medical bills. However the road isn’t so easy as his brother in law works for the police force which cracks down on drug crime, plus all the power hungry drug dealers that conflict with Walters business.

Breaking Bad uses the linear narrative structure telling the story from start to finish. However there are a few cases of flashbacks within some episodes to get some detail and back story behind some characters and some scenes that start with the ending first, then goes back in time leading to the events of the ending. It finishes with main character dying with many others leaving the story by the end, causing it to have a closed ending.

Breaking Bad has the genres of crime, drama and thriller according to IMDb’s profile. This television series is rated 18+ meaning it is meant for a more mature adult audience as it had many scenes with drugs, violence, death, sex and a more mature language. According to YouGov, the most common audience within the UK that watches Breaking Bad are males aged between 25-39 and based mostly in central Scotland.

Eastenders is a British television soap that started airing in 1985 and is still airing on BBC 1 to this day. The show follows a small community of characters that live within the east end of London living their every day lives with added drama and conflicts between the characters with endless story lines, relationships and tales.

Eastenders uses the multi strand narrative structure, where there are several story lines happening at the same time within the show between several characters. Sometimes these stories can conflict with each other or blend into a bigger story line where they somehow link. Soaps don’t usually use flashbacks, however there are moments within these stories where a character can talk about something that happened within their past that was never shown on television. By doing this it can open up new stories, plot twists and even new characters that can get involved within the story line. The story is forever going as well as it is a serial, with no ending in sight. The way it keeps its viewers interested and keep coming back is by having most, if not all, episodes end on a cliff hanger with open stories where anything can happen.

The genre of Eastenders according to IMDb’s profile categorises it as a crime, drama and romance. It is for the audience of the ages 12 and up due to the adult styled stories and real life issues that get bought up within some of the stories. Eastenders shows violence, crime, passionate romance scenes as well as alcohol, drugs and smoking not making it ideal for a younger audience which could try and imitate characters they saw on television in real life. According to YouGov, the audience that watches Eastenders the most within the Uk are females aged between 25-39 mainly based within London.

Cyberbully (2015) is a one hour single drama based on a real life events as well as every day occurrence that can affect peoples lives when using the internet. This drama follows Casey, a teenage girl, who is living out any teenagers worst nightmare of having their privacy reviled to the world online. A hacker hacks her computer when she wants revenge on her ex-boyfriend for tweeting a personal mean tweet about her but then things start to get a bit strange when the hacker starts to threaten her. The hacker states that he hacks to help the victims of cyber-bullying. It is then shown that the hacker isn’t out to help Casey, but to show her that she is the bully. If Casey does not comply with the hacker, her personal photographs will be leaked and her life will be over.

The story is a single strand narrative structure as it has a beginning and an ending, in fact the whole drama is based in real time and is an hour long event making it a linear narrative as well. There are no flashbacks within the drama, however there are videos throughout the show that reflect on past events which are used against the main character as a blackmail. As this is one story, it does have an ending making it have the structure of a closed narrative, yet, the way it ended it could be continued from another persons perspective due to the openness of the topic.

The genre of this single drama according to IMDb’s profile, it is classified as a drama, mystery and thriller. The drama has the rating of 15+. Throughout the whole drama it uses mature language of cursing and teases provocative images of young adults but doesn’t show anything. There is also a showing of drugs being overdosed and an emotional suicide story that is emotionally damaging. The show is believed to be targeted at mid teens to young adults who are the most related to the topic of cyber-bullying in real life as it shows and sends a message of reality to the viewer. However this drama is also targeted towards older adults, especially parents, to send the same message to them to make them aware of the younger generation’s struggles with cyber-bullying and what happens behind closed doors. The drama made media saying how it shows the reality of bullying as well as how topical it really was.

Single camera production is a piece of media recorded with a single camera. It is more commonly used in things such as music videos, short films and low budget movies. The pro’s of this is that it is a lot more manageable to use and is more flexible for the type of shots that are available without worrying of the obstacles in the way such as other cameras. More pro’s of this production is that it is a lot cheaper on the budget during the production. This however is not a perfect way of filming as it means that the camera has to stay in the same area to film all the shots before moving to a different area for a different scene. Another negative fact about single camera production is that it is more time consuming due to the fact of there being only one camera recording with one memory slot per card plus the time it takes to move the camera and other equipment such as lighting and sound equipment around for the different scenes. Productions that use this technique of recording are drama shows with a set amount of episodes from the get go. The reason for this is that it is low budget and is a more manageable way to watch ratings for the shows to see it if it worth continuing the series. Examples of these kind of shows are ones such as Game of Thrones, Scrubs and House MD. It is more common to see single camera productions in shows that have different locations or time lines compared to shows that are in the same area or scenery for most of the show.

What is multi camera production?

Multi camera production is a piece of media that is recorded with multiple cameras. The cameras are usually set up in certain places throughout the recordings and do not move from their spots, only rotate. It is more common to see this kind of production in things such as talk shows and the news, things that are designed to be aired on television live. The pro’s of this is that it can get a lot more different angles for the recordings which would take less time to create compared to single camera production. Another pro is that as it takes less time to move stuff around to record the different angles and shots, it takes less time to edit footage for pre recorded shows such as soap operas. A con to this way of production is that it is a lot more expensive budget wise this way due to the equipment costs and manpower needed to operate it all. Another negative is even though there are more cameras on the set that can get more angles and shots, they are less flexible than single camera production due to the fact that they are limited to the amount of shots they can get. There is risk that they can catch other cameras in the shots as well as stage lighting, sound and other production members.

What is a Series, Serial and Single Drama?

Series – A series is a sequence of episodes in a television program that has an ending. An example of this is Friends.

Serial – A serial a television show that has no ending / continuous story. An example of this Eastenders and Hollyoaks.

Single Drama – A single drama is a single plot story with no continuation. It is considered as a one off special. An example of this is the BBC drama 7.39

Genres and Sub Genres?

Period Drama – A period drama is a drama show that is set in a certain time or era. An example of this is Downton Abby

Drama Documentary – A drama documentary is a documentary on a real life event such as World War 2 or the events of

Crime Drama – A crime drama focuses on people that work within the forces such as police and hospitals and shows their daily jobs and events from car chases to swat raids. An example of this is the TV show is Traffic Cops. Another example of crime dramas could be a mystery show where the main character is a detective. An example of this is the television show Castle.

Soap Opera – A soap opera is a serial television show that has no ending based on a fictional setting but follows the lives of certain characters. An example of this is Eastenders.

Comedy – A comedy television show is designed to be funny and humorous. It can be based of live stand up or a comedy sitcom such as Friends.

Horror- A horror television show is designed to be scary and thrilling with jump scares and fictional nightmarish horrors such as the television series Scream

What are genres?

Genres is the style of the product. It labels the show with the kind of content that is within it. So if something was labelled with the genre of comedy that lets the individual know that it is a show that was created to make the watcher laugh. Genres are important because of how it lists the program into its own category. It also lets people see similar or recommended shows that are within the same genre of the show that they watched.

The most popular type of genre that was on television in 2016 would be the genre of adventure and action. The examples of the type of television shows would be shows such as The Walking Dead, Arrow and The Flash. These shows often have a singular or a group of main characters with a load of side characters around them with us following them on their journey and any obstacles they may encounter. This information was obtained by statista.com: https://www.statista.com/statistics/563611/most-popular-tv-show-genres-in-europe/

Sub Genres are television or films that have more than one genre within it. For example, the movie Deadpool is classified with the genre of action but also has the genre of comedy. So both genres are put together to make it an Action/Comedy which is a sub genre. The positive thing about sub genres is that it appeals to more than one type of audience.

The final product of my project did match the original idea I had I mind. The colour scheme fitted the exact idea I had, making it relate to the latest expansion of using the colour green with a dark background to really make it stand out. The images were all related and fitted well too which also matched the original idea. The only things that didn’t match my original idea was the layout of the review and feature; they look a bit bland and basic when I did have some sort of layout planned to make it look more interesting which I ended up failing to do.

The methods I used on this project was firstly to use Photoshop to create the front cover and experiment with certain layout designs, moving things around, different images and fonts. I also used some techniques to change the colour of the backgrounds on InDesign by playing around with the layers and schemes as well as setting out images in certain orders in front and behind text.

My magazine compared to the professional magazine doesn’t look too bad however could still use a lot of work. The cover is direct and sends a clear image towards the individual like a professional magazine would. The contents page is laid out in a certain way to show where everything is clearly as well as clear advertisements to Blizzard’s other games also like a professional magazine. The review and feature however are still very basic in comparison to the professional magazines and could of done with better images and needed more planning to look better. I did try to follow a typical gaming magazine style and did pull off some things, but due to being a bit unfamiliar with the program, I was unable to create the magazine fully to the image.

The main pursuit of the magazine was to celebrate World of Warcraft’s 12th anniversary of being live as a somewhat special type of magazine in a form of entertainment. I do believe I achieve this by adding content in the magazine that any WoW player can relate and enjoy while being informative and detailed.

I do think that I have gained more confidence in using Photoshop in the terms of editing colour schemes and the basics. I am also now a bit more familiar with InDesign due to starting with this project with the faintest memory of how to use it.

If I could change anything about this project it would be the layout of the review and feature as to me, it looks too basic and simple. I think I could have improved the quality of the magazine as a whole however by simply taking more time to plan and practise using the program that I was unfamiliar with.

The sources of information I gained for this project was firstly YouTube to gain some basic knowledge on how to use InDesign. I watched a few tutorials and followed some online guides to show me what steps I needed to take to get the default basic layout of any magazine and how to customize it to fit my certain style. I also gained information about what to write in my feature by looking at websites with the history of the game with accurate dates to use. I also did a poll to gain information about the type of people in my social group that use magazines in their lives which helped me gain an idea of my target audience, especially when I looked into the demographics of my chosen topic.

My time management for my pre-production went well. It was all on time and followed the schedule that we set for ourselves on time to a high quality. The production stage was a bit slow due to not knowing really how to correctly and promptly use InDesign however was created in time. The post-production however fell behind slightly due to lack of access to software to reflect and quote previous work as well as being a bit behind on the production stage held me back a bit near the end.

The design I was going for was a magazine that when you saw it, you would immediately know that it was about World of Warcraft.It was created in a way that could reflect on its latest expansion as well as show informative and create articles inside that any sort of WoW player would enjoy which I felt, content wise, I met the goal. Again, I do think that the actual design and layout of my project could of been improved and met a higher standard however due to not knowing the software too well this was limited.

I believe that my magazine is going to be appropriate for my targeted audience due to it being created specifically for them as a special edition release. It has everything that a WoW player would look for as well as making it special to celebrate it’s 12 year anniversary. The only complaint I can think of to make this more enjoyable for my targeted audience is to make it slightly more interactive so they feel that they are more a part of the celebration.